Counter-operating mechanism for coin-controlled devices



W. C. REES.

COUNTER OPERATING MECHANISM FOR COIN CONTROLLED DEVICES, APPLlCATlON .FILED Aue.11.'192o.

Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET ljw M 2 SIIEETS-SIIEET 2.

Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

- W. C. REES. COUNTER OPERATING MECHANISM FOR COIN CONTROLLED OE-VICES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. I1, I920.

posite direction,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SERVICE COMPANY, OF BOSTON,

MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

COUNTER-OPERATING MECHANISM FOR COIN-CONTROLLED DEVICES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

Application filed August 11, 1920. Serial No. 402,870.

To all whom it may concem:

Be it known that I, WARREN C. Runs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Somerville, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Counter-Operating Mechanism for Coin-Controlled Devices, of which the following is a specification. 1

This invention relates to a coin-controlled device adapted, for example, to be used in operating the lock-or latch of a door. illustration of the present invention, I have chosen the device disclosed by the Morse Patent No. 1,148,249, dated July 27, 1915, the embodiment of the invention here shown being designed with particular'reference to its applicability to that device, but it is to be understood that in so illustrating the invention hereinafter described, I have not intended to limit its application to a device for the particular use for which the said patented device is adapted.

The object of the invention is to provide in a coin-controlled device a mechanical counter, which is operable, to register the number of coins inserted, partially by the forcible insertion of the coin in the slot of the device, and partially by a manual movement of a member of the device, causing said member to perform its usual function, (which may be that of releasing the coin), and the additional function of partly operating the counter.

The invention is embodied in a coin-controlled device provided with a mechanical counter, preferably of the so-called Veeder type, having an oscillatory arm, and counteroperating mechanism adapted, by oscillating said arm,'to cause the counter to register, said mechanism including means operable by force exerted through a coin pushed into a coin-receiving slot by an operator, to move the counter arm in one direction, and means manually operable from the exterior of the casing to move the counter arm in the opsaid manually operable means, in this embodiment of the invention, including one of the heads employed in the patented Morse device to alternately arrest and release a coin, said head having, therefore, a dual function.

I will now describe the herein illustrted embodiment of the invention, in connection For with the drawings which accompany and form .a part of this specification.

Figure 1 is an elevation of the patented Morse device as applied to adoor in connect1on with a lockon such door, a portion of the casing being in section to show the coin slot and one of the membersof the counteroperating mechanism of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the device as shown .by Fig. 1, the door and lock being omitted.

Fig. 3 is a front elevation, showing the casing opened.

Fig. 4 is an enlargement of a portion of Fig. 3, showing the upper part of the fixed portion of the casing, and omitting the head associated with said fixed portion.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary section on line 55 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view .of the biased counter-arm-engaging member.

F 7 isa perspective view of the supporting bracket hereinafter referred to.

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary view, showing in section, a portion .of the case on line 88 of F ig. 3, and in elevation, certain parts above said line. Y

Figs. 9 and 10 are views similar to Fig. 4, illustrating different stagesof the operation.

Fig. 11 is a section on line 11-11 of Fig.4.

Fig. 12 is a section on line 1212 of Fig. 9.

*ig. 13 is a section on line 13-18 of Fig. 10.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts inall of the figures.

The casing consists of a body 10, and a cover 11, connected to the body by hinges 12. The body 10 may be attached to a door 14 having mounted upon it a lock 17. In the body 10 is a bearing 20, and in the cover 11, is a bearing 21. In these bearings are journaled shanks or shafts 22 and 23 respectively, the former passing through the lock and being engaged with the latch bolt and having an operating handle 24, the other shank having an operating handle 25. R0- tation of the shank 22 causes the retraction of the latch bolt, and also causes the release of a coin previously inserted in the casing, the shank 22 being provided with a head 26, having a shoulder 32, and the shank 23 being provided with a head 27, having a shoulder 33. These heads and shoulders act as described in the Morse patent, to alterto, and located within the casing body 10,

is a cyclometer or mechanical counter, preferably of the well known Veeder type disclosedby Letters Patent No. 548,482, dated October 22, 1895. The said counter includes 4 a holder 35, attached to the body 10 and hav- I tate step-by-step in the holder,

ing a sight aperture 36, an actuating rockshaft 37, journaled in the holder, and a series of index wheels 38, mounted to romeans being provided, as shown by the said iVeeder patent'for actuating the firstof said wheels from the rock-shaft, and each of said wheels from the next in order. The counter rock-shaft 37 is provided with anarm 4O formed to contact with, and be oscillated by, the hereinafter described members of a counter-operating mechanism, the counter being located adjacent to the coin-receiving slot 31 in the top of thecasing. I

The coin slot is preferably formed in the cover 11 of the casing, said cover having an ear or lip 42 overlapping a part of the casing body 10, and covering a recess 43 into which the slot 31opens, as shown by Fig. 1.

Located withinthe casing in posltionto obstruct the coin slot 31 is a biased counterarm-en'gaging member, which is preferably a bell-crank lever, indicated as a whole by the reference numeral 44 (Fig. 6), said lever including a slot-obstructing outer" arm 45, an inner arm 46 contacting with the counter arm 40, a hub 47 journaled on a fixed stud 48, and an'arm 49 connected by a biasing spring 50 with a fixed ear 51. The member or lever 44;is normallyheld by the spring 50 in th position shown by Figs. 8, 4 and 10 so that its outer arm 45' is in the path of a coin 52, and is, adapted to be displaced by force exerted by the operator, through the coin,'to the position shown by Fig. 9,

' the inner. arm 46 beingthus moved to swing is returned the counter arm 40 to the raised position shown by Fig. 12, and-thus partially operate the counter. When the coin passes the 45, the lever of which said armforms a part by the spring 50 to its normal position, leaving the counter arm 40 in its as shownby Fig.10. A y Pivoted at 55 to a fixed supportin the casing,ris an unbiased counter-arm engagingv membernwhich is preferably a bellcrank levercomposed of an outerarm 56, contacting-with the counter arm 40, and an merit being such that when the stud is moved from the position in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 10 from the direction there shown, the unbiased lever is moved to swing the counter-arm downward to the position shown by Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 11, and thus complete the operation of the counter. Owing to the fact that the lever formed by the arms 56 and 57 is unbiased, and remains in any position to which it is movable, said lever remains in the position shown by Figs. 9 and 10, after the return of the biased lever 47 to its normal position, until moved to the position shown by Figs. 3 and 4 by the stud 58.

To enable the arm 57 to yieldingly encounter the stud 58, I provide said arm with a resilient abutment 60 for said stud, and thu compensate for the different directions of movement of the lever-arm and the stud.

It will now be seen that'the counter is operated partly by force exerted on the coin by the operator in inserting the coin in the slot, and partly by force exerted by the operator on thehead 26 in releasing the coin. 95

The counter-arm 40 is preferably provided with an inclined edge face 40*, with which the biased lever arm 46 is in sliding contact, and with a hooked finger 40* contacing with the unbiased lever arm 56.

I claim:

1. In a coin-controlled device, the combination of a casing having a coin receiving slot, a mechanical counter provided with an. oscillatory arm adjacent to said slot, and 1 counter-operating mechanism adapted to operate the counter by oscillating the arm thereof, said mechanism including a biased counter-arm engaging member normally ob.- structing the slot, displaceable by force exerted through .a coin inserted in the slot, and engaging the counter arm to move'the latter in one direction, a coin-releasing member operable from the exterior of the casing, and an unbiased arm-engaging member, 115 movable by force exerted through said coinreleasing member toimov'e the counter-arm in the opposite direction, the counter-arm being formed to cooperate with the members contacting therewith, said unbiased member being movable alternately by the counterarm' and by the coin-releasing member.

2. A coin-controlled mechanism embodying the combination specified by claim 1, the said biased member being a bell, -crank lever 1 having an outer arm normally obstructing the coin slot, and an inner arm contacting with the counter-arm. i

v 3. A; coin-controlled mechanism embodying the combination specified by claiml, the

said unbiased member being a bell-crank lever having an outer arm contacting with the counter-arm, and an inner arm arranged to be moved by the coin-releasing member.

4. A coin-controlled mechanism embodying the combination specified by claim 1, the sald coin-releasing member being oscillatable in a bearing in the casing and provided with a laterally projecting stud, and

the said unbiased member being a bellcrank lever having an outer arm contacting with the counter-arm, and an inner arm located in the path of said stud, and provided With a yielding abutment for the stud.

In testimony whereof I have afiixed my signature.

WARREN CHALMERS REES. 

